The week's new films reviewed and rated

This is a week dominated by nostalgia, as a pair of Hollywood titans attempt to prove they can still cut it, a timeless masterpiece is reissued, and Russell Brand attempts to revive the classic caper comedy.

Legendary directors Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen have both had rocky receptions in the past few years, and their new films don’t look likely to buck that trend: Coppola’s ‘Tetro’ is a beautifully photographed, deeply personal Buenos Aires-set family drama which never quite delivers on its early promise, while Allen’s ‘Whatever Works’ is a breezy but forgettable slice of New York romantic kvetching.

The week’s best new movie might be ‘Get Him to the Greek’, a wild and woolly rock ‘n’ roll romp in which Jonah Hill attempts to wrestle Russell Brand’s preening popstar across the Atlantic to LA. It’s certainly a vast improvement on this week’s other big Hollywood product, ‘When in Rome’, a dire romcom in which Jonah and Russell’s ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ co-star Kristin Bell finds herself the object of lust for five dimwitted men.

There’s romance, too, of a sort in ‘Villa Amalia’, a spare French drama in which Isabelle Huppert looks for a new life, but the week’s big Francophone release has to be the welcome 50th anniversary reissue of Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’, that jazzy lynchpin of the nouvelle vague that's as sexy, insouciant and cool as the day it was first screened.

At the bottom of the heap, ‘The Collector’ is a nasty little torture flick from the co-writers of those awful ‘Saw’ sequels. But there’s a lot of fun to be had with ‘Good Hair’, Chris Rock’s good-natured, globetrotting documentary about the importance black Americans attach to their haircuts.

Film of the week

Dave Calhoun on 'Breathless: 50th Anniversary'
‘See it again and be surprised at the fresh reactions it provokes’

Other releases

Ben Walters on 'Whatever Works'
‘Those who are uncomfortable with Allen’s tendency to pair nubile girls with ageing men will find little relief’

David Jenkins on 'Tetro'
‘A movie filled with splashes of brilliance rather than a plain brilliant movie’

Tom Huddelston on 'Get Him to the Greek'
‘Rejoice in the fact that one of London’s most divisive, idiosyncratic oddballs has scaled the heights of Tinseltown superstardom’

David Jenkins 'When in Rome'
‘When in hell, more like…’

Dave Calhoun on 'Villa Amalia'
‘Those who enjoy Isabelle Huppert should gain something from this mildly interesting French drama’

Nigel Floyd on 'The Collector'
‘An enervating exercise in B-movie plot mechanics, serial killer clichés and ‘torture porn’ nastiness’

Cath Clarke on 'Good Hair'
‘Hilarious, insightful and charming enough to let him get away with the flammable stuff’

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